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While wandering the halls at Drupa 2004, I discovered a company printing images on cookies (read about cookies at Drupa 2004 here). I've never been one to pass up a chance to have a cookie and a chat, and it turned out that Spectra, the company printing the cookies, wasn't selling printers at all but was selling printer heads. Fast forward to 2008; the company is now FUJIFILM Dimatix and they have a new president and CEO, Martin Schoeppler. Between meetings and on planes, Martin generously took the time to answer my questions by email. It turns out that printing on cookies is a very small part of what they do! In fact, these very same "printer heads" are used to produce an inexpensive, lightweight, and flexible light-activated photo-reactive material that is printed using roll-to-roll printing processes. In other words, solar panels... WTT GG: I’m going to start off with the “dumb question” of the day: Is it piezo – with a long “i" like apple pie? Or is it piezo – with a long “e" sound - like green peas? MS: It’s a bit deceiving - it’s actually three syllables, pronounced either of two ways, “Pie-ee-zo” or “Pie-ay-zo.” It’s a prefix derived from the Greek, meaning to squeeze or press. FUJIFILM Dimatix technology uses the piezoelectric affect to, in a sense, “push” very precise amounts of fluids onto a very precise location through our patented drop-on-demand printheads – be it ink, metals or one of a growing number of other functional materials. WTT GG: While we think of this as a printing technology, your technology really boils down to a “deposition” technology that can place tiny droplets of ink – or other liquid or even powder – very accurately. Is that correct? MS: Yes. In fact, piezo technology is really driven by a micro-manufacturing process, where we are essentially delivering a minute amount of fluid to a very specific and defined location, and in a precisely metered volume. We’re talking on the scale of picoliters (one trillionth of a liter). Today, standard graphics applications can deliver ink droplets down to a size of about 10 picoliters, which is about as small as the human eye can resolve. FUJIFILM Dimatix’s piezo technology can produce drops as small as a single picoliter. This scale enables micrometer size features necessary for advanced life science and printed electronics applications. The printed solar cell technology unveiled by Konarka and the new genetic sequencing array technology recently announced by Agilent are just two examples of these new applications. WTT GG: What makes Piezo “drop on demand” inkjet technology different from “continuous” inkjet used by Kodak, for example? MS: FUJIFILM Dimatix’s piezo-based inkjet printhead modules are created through single crystal Silicon MicroElectroMechanical (MEMS) manufacturing. MEMS is the technology used to create very precise and very small mechanical devices. The result is micromachines that are very specific and can be anything from an environmental sensor to a precise system of microscopic gears and levers. In the case of Silicon MEMS-based inkjet, the additional challenge is to manage the fluid flow through the MEMS devices. The key to Silicon MEMS-based piezo inkjet is that it can create very precisely defined and positioned fluid jet nozzles; tightly packed and highly integrated jetting structures; and mechanically strong and chemically inert devices. It’s really where science meets function. (To learn more about the science and application, go to the Dimatix Website) WTT GG: Let’s step out of the box and look at applications outside the graphic arts industry. For example, how is this technology used to make solar energy collectors? MA: Our inkjet heads were recently used by Konarka Technologies in Massachusetts to create what is considered the world’s first known demonstration of inkjet technology in the manufacturing of photovoltaic solar cells. Konarka is using our deposition technology to help advance and commercialize their Power Plastic®, a material that converts light to energy. The ability of FUJIFILM Dimatix technology to print conductive circuits on nearly any substrate makes it a fabrication tool particularly useful in creating highly efficient solar cells and sensors that require small area requirements. In fact, engineers at Konarka noted that the demonstration confirms that organic solar cells can be processed with non-impact printing technologies with little or no loss compared to “clean room” semiconductor technologies such as spin coating. WTT GG: What are some of the applications in bio-tech where you see your technology being used? MS: This is another interesting field that is benefiting from advanced jetting technologies. Agilent Technologies in California is incorporating customized versions of the FUJIFILM Dimatix Materials Cartridge (DMC) to advance their next generation of genetic sequencing analyzers. Specifically designed for R&D and feasibility testing, our unique cartridge-style printhead allows us to develop features and product families that are significantly smaller and more versatile than anything else on the market. So, in addition to the strength and long life provided by the silicon structure, the ability of our printheads to produce such small droplet sizes are key to creating the extremely small but precise structural geometries required in life science applications. Building systems for in-situ synthesis of molecules like DNA require a fluid deposition system with outstanding precision, throughput, reliability and control. Agilent’s use of FUJIFILM Dimatix Shaped Piezo Silicon MEMS technology shows how our products are being applied as easily to life science research as to wide format graphics or printing on textiles. (Back to Top of Page) WTT GG: What are some of the applications in chemistry where you see your applications being used? There is a constant, and global, investment in researching new and alternative fuel sources – particularly as the number of industrialized countries grows. MS: Researchers at the Colorado State University Chemistry Department are using jetting techniques to investigate more cost-effective, efficient methods of producing hydrogen through a process called “water photoelectrolysis.” This process is also called water splitting – the breaking down of water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen using solar energy as the catalyst. It is promising research that could lead to an efficient alternative fuel source in the near future. By using FUJIFILM Dimatix printheads to jet precise, highly controlled arrays of finely-graded compounds onto transparent conductive substrates, the chemists hope to isolate and quantify particularly compounds in a printed matrix and identify the most promising new metal oxides for this process. There are several parameters that help determine the most successful compound, from droplet volume, number of nozzles firing, jetting waveform for individual nozzles and the frequency of nozzle firing. And they are all critical. The compound optimized during the research is composed of three common elements – aluminum, cobalt and iron – providing hope that the method can be used to find new solar water splitting materials that are not only functional but also inexpensive. WTT GG: Who are some of the companies incorporating your technology into theirs? Are there names we’d recognize? MS: Our jetting technologies are not just changing the traditional concept of jetting ink on paper – but also the ability to jet colorants in minute quantity on edibles such as cookies, snacks, confections, dairy products – even pharmaceuticals. Commercial food manufacturing is highly competitive and today, Dimatix is one of the only companies with the capability to jet FDA-certified colorants onto food products at high-speed at the point of manufacture whether the product is hot or cold, wet or dry, liquid or solid. In 2004 Dimatix (then called Spectra, Inc.) engineers helped develop jetted printing technology that enabled Procter & Gamble, maker of Pringle® to launch their Pringles Prints, which integrated unique designs printed directly on every crisp. Pringles Prints were introduced nationally in May 2005. This early adoption of FUJIFILM Dimatix printhead technology was just one visible application of a growing business providing customized digital decoration applications for our key customers and ink partners industrial manufacturing processes. These digital decorations can enhance products' visual appeal - without affecting shape, flavor or shelf life - and stimulate retail sales, enhance corporate branding or support marketing initiatives from test marketing to promotional tie-ins. WTT GG: Looking out into the future – what are some of the applications you can imagine this technology being used for? MS: Inkjet technology enables the precision printing of very fine circuitry on nearly any substrate – so we may see thin, maybe one millimeter thick flexible LCD screens in the next 5-10 years. Screens that you can wrap on a pole, or roll up and tuck under your arm. Because inkjet is a non-impact imaging system, our unique, food grade, stainless steel enclosed printhead clusters will continue to provide new opportunities to differentiate within the highly competitive food manufacturing market. Paired with advance 3D computer assisted design (CAD) software, we see the potential for creating new products or replacement parts from a downloaded file on the internet and “printed” at a service bureau or third party vendor. And, keep an eye on the home design market. The quality and precision of today’s inkjet technology enables homeowners and designers to create and print high quality, customized tile work or wall coverings as simply as we can print a photograph on a t-shirt or mug today. WTT GG: Thanks! Was there anything that you wanted to add? MS: We became part of the Fujifilm family just a few years ago – and I think your readers would be interested in just how different the company may be from what they think of as Fujifilm. Today, Fujifilm is a $24.6 billion company that is leveraging an expertise in thin-film coating engineering and fine particle science and expanding into a variety of technologies. To put this in perspective, this is nearly twice the size of Fujifilm in 2000, when it had revenues of $13.2 billion. The color and other related film products that Fujifilm built its brand around today represent less than 4% of our overall global revenue. Also, 70% of Fujifilm global sales are now from products introduced since 2000 and include technology in commercial and consumer products, like wide-view film for flat panel displays, bio-imaging analyzers and other life science products and new products from newly acquired companies. Fujifilm invests about $4 million every day in research and development – and continually finds new applications for its core technologies. The combined patents granted to Fujifilm, Fujinon (our optics business) and Fuji Xerox would rank us in the top 15 for U.S. Patents granted worldwide in 2007. The company is so much more diversified than people realize:

• Fujifilm invented the digital x-ray, and has a leading digital diagnostic imaging business;
• Fujifilm is now a leading supplier to the semiconductor manufacturing industry;
• And the company has applied its anti-oxidant organic material development originated in film manufacture to the cosmetics industry.

Fujifilm maintains strong US-based business, corporate assets and capabilities that no other company can claim. These are key to supporting a company in the process reinventing itself globally. As in the commercial printing business, the analog side of retail photo and imaging remains important to us and our customers, and is being supported more efficiently as this category continues to mature. The Imaging Division continues to provide unique imaging and photo processing solutions to harness the growth in retail digital printing for Fujifilm and our customers, and maintains leadership in many industries. About Martin Scheoppler Martin Scheoppler is president and CEO of FUJFIILM Dimatix, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of FUJIFILM Corporation based in Santa Clara, CA and the world's leading supplier of drop-on-demand inkjet printheads for industrial applications. He joined FUJIFILM Dimatix in 2004 following a career that included senior management positions in United States and Europe at Hewlett-Packard Co., Lumileds Lighting, and Agilent Technologies, Inc. Schoeppler has a BSEE degree in Electronics and Telecommunications with a minor in Business from the University of Applied Science in Esslingen, Germany, and studied Advanced Industrial Marketing at INSEAD in France.